Mirror Account
by Inu-Ranma
Summary: A Ranma/Matrix Crossover, after Neo has died, the hunt for the One is still on. Who is it? You guessed it!
1. Mirror Account: Chapter 1

A ring perforated the silence, shattering the tranquility of emptiness with the entropy of a raucous buzz.  
Two rings...  
Three rings...  
A click followed as a clear, feminine voice answered.  
"Trinity here."  
"You're early." A raspy voice answered on the other end, betraying a hint of cynicism in its mocking tones.  
"I thought I'd give you a break." Trinity wasn't ready to deal with Cypher's antics today.  
"You like him, don't you?"  
"No, Not really. He's weird."  
"There's been some weird stuff going on lately. I'll leave the files for you."  
Click.  
"What was that?"  
Click.  
"What was what?"  
"That clicking noise. Are you sure this line's secure?"  
Click.  
Click.  
"I'd better go. Let's switch now." Trinity hung up and leaned back into her seat, surveying the building where she had "arrived" in Tokyo, Japan. Something was up.  
  
***  
  
Agent Yamada straightened his collar as he stepped heavily out of the town-car that had brought him to the old building in outskirts Tokyo.  
"Who would have figured?" he remarked in flawless Japanese. "A run-down warehouse in the middle of Tokyo."  
An NPO mini pulled up behind Yamada, screeching to a halt.  
"What's the big idea?" A Japanese officer stepped out of the car. "People could have been hurt! You were going more than double the speed limit!"  
"It was a good cause, I assure you, officer." Yamada turned around and faced the now daunted Japanese officer. "This woman is one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. She was the cause of billions of dollars in damage back in the 80's"  
The Japanese officer nodded. He had to be polite to this man. The government had ordered him to cooperate with him.  
"We'll go in and take her." He waved the other three officers out of the mini and directed them into the building.  
"I wouldn't recommend it, Sergeant." Yamada grinned, but it was too late for the officers to notice. They had already entered the building.  
  
***  
  
Trinity heard the officers coming long before they arrived, and thus had ample time to prepare.   
When the first novice officer to arrive finally made it through the doorway she was sitting quietly at the chair in front of her phone, arms folded obediently behind her head.  
The novice, one officer Ikeda, smirked as he filed into the room and surveyed his capture. He was sure to get a raise for this.  
"I've got her guys! She wasn't that bad! Some supercrimin-agggh!" Ikeda's screams descended into a faint, sickening gurgle as Trinity's throwing knife buried itself to the hilt in his throat.  
The other officers had only fractions of a second to react before Trinity was upon them, attacking in full force. In three seconds, three more men were on the ground, small knives buried deep within their organs, and Trinity was gone.  
  
***  
  
Yamada surveyed the brutal scene only minutes later, and allowed himself a half-smile. "I told you so."  
"You told me so?" The lieutenant was nearly foaming at the mouth. "Four of my men are dead and you told me so?"  
Yamada ignored him and bent over, examining the bodies of the men, and the knives. Suddenly a flash of red caught his eye.  
"Damn..."  
  
***  
  
Trinity smiled as she walked down the street, detonator in hand. Tank's new toys had worked rather well!  
Not allowing herself much more than that, Trinity made a break for the nearest hard-line, in a gym dangerously close to Him. Even as Trinity broke into her run she heard the sirens and screeches that notified her of the presence of a pursuit squad. Trouble.  
  
***  
  
Ranma Saotome put up her towel in the gym and began to hurriedly get dressed so that she might have a chance to get some decent sleep tonight. "The things I do for survival..." She flashed a lopsided grin at the gym's clerk as she charged out the sliding doors and made a beeline for the alley that concealed the fire escape that was the easiest way into her apartment.  
This evening seemed to be going pretty well so far. "Ranko Tendo" had, after three years of loneliness, finally managed to secure herself not only a "real" identity but also a secure job and even her own apartment. If only she could have done that as the man she was...  
Ranma was so lost in thought that she almost completely failed to notice the black-haired Gaijin until she ran straight into her.  
The woman, easily topping Ranko's height by a full head, began to register a modicum fear as she stared into Ranma's eyes. Ranko gave her a good shake to try to get some sense out of her.  
"What's wrong?" Ranko tried to speak to the woman.  
The Gaijin simply pushed past her and kept running away from whoever was chasing her.  
The screeching of tires telegraphed the presence of whoever was chasing the woman even as four men who looked like Yakuza without the tattoos jumped out of the car and pushed through the croud of people walking to and from their respective jobs, making a beeline for the alley that the woman had just entered, seemingly for refuge.  
"Shit." Ranma dropped her bags and began a deliberate pace towards the alley. "That's a Cul-de-sac." She quickly tore the sleeves from her shirt, allowing herself the mobility that she knew she would need for the fight that was to come.  
"Well. Life was getting boring, anyway."  
Two red minis drove behind Ranma, speeding to an unknown destination, two red minis that looked exactly the same, down to the license plate.  
  
***  
  
Trinity came up to the cold brick wall and frantically searched along it for a door, a fire escape, or anything that could help her even as the four Agents drew closer, deliberately slowing their pace to instill fear in her. Otherwise interrogation would be harder. There was nothing, though. She was going to die. She was dead. They would kill her, just like they did to Neo. The poor kid...  
"Do you mind?" The clear soprano rang out, almost tangible in its confidence, causing all four agents to turn towards the entrance to the alley. "This is my neighborhood, and I don't appreciate these fights going on here."  
Trinity momentarily forgotten, the four Agents turned towards the girl and simultaneously popped their necks, working their best to intimidate the child.  
"We would advise that you leave here at once, Miss Saotome." The "alpha male," Smith, admonished the child. "We know of your history, and we know who you would not like us to inform of your whereabouts.  
The girl seemed to begin to glow as she took a fighting stance in front of the four men. This child was foolish, Trinity had to stop her! She quickly charged for the nearest agent, unthinking, and was thrown back into the wall which she had just leapt from. It was hopeless. The agents began attacking the girl.  
Trinity looked away, not wishing to see another person die, and was rewarded with sounds of pain, sounds of male pain! She quickly turned her head back to see the girl moving in what could only be decided as a blur, her arms seeming to be in ten places at once as, one by one, she crushed each of the four agents against the very walls that they had trapped Trinity against.  
Jolting Trinity from her reverie as she watched the beauty of the redhead's small war, the phone rang.  
"Trin here." She was unable to disguise the fear and elation in her voice as the redhead begin to actually beat the agents.  
"It's Tank. Where the hell are you? Tokyo seems to have become a hot spot for all of the agents in Asia. They're morphing in like crazy!"  
Trinity noticed the first agent's broken body fall lifeless to the ground with a smile on its face, morphing back into the salarymen that had been unfortunate enough to be nearby. "I think I know why, Tank. You should see this girl. She's moving even faster than they do!"  
"What girl, Trin? You're not making any sense! How can anybody move faster than they d-...holy shi-"  
The line went dead.  
The redhead finished off the last of the agents with a satisfied smile and surveyed the four salarymen who remained. As Trinity had seen a thousand times before, the smile quickly turned into a confused frown as she clenched her arms around her stomach as if to comfort herself.  
"How did they...?"   
Trinity silenced the girl with a finger. "Where's your home? We have to hide."   
The girl nodded and broke into a run, taking easy herself but nearly running trinity out of breath with her sheer speed. Within minutes they were on the fifth floor of a nearby building and seemingly safe.  
The girl's apartment was undeniably seedy, barely having enough space to fit a couch, much less the seemingly endless array of martial arts equipment that leaned against the wall. Despite this, the living room was spotless, having not only no dirt, but no furniture to mark the floor.  
As if on cue by the sudden air of relaxation, the girl collapsed, allowing her arms to fall free of her bruised midriff. In a state of panic, Trinity quickly found the girl's bathroom and dumped her unceremoniously into the tub, turning on the hot water in one fluid motion.  
The girl was no longer such. It was Him.  
Trinity turned to the nearby porcelain bowl, tried, and failed to accept the impossible as she lost what surreal lunch she'd had that day.  
After a healthy ejection of imaginary fluids, Trinity gathered herself and sat down and pulled out her cell phone.  
It seemed like ages before Tank picked up the line. "Op, here." There was fear and worry in his voice  
"Tank, something's up. The Matrix has gone wild, and I'm about to lose it myself. Find me a hard-line so I can get the hell out of here.  
  
***  
  
Ranma awoke in his bathtub with a start. What had happened? Those thugs had fought him while he was a her and lost, she brought that lady home, and then...she must have blacked out.  
Not knowing what else to do, and having a distinct sense of Deja Vu, Ranma stood up in the tub and walked out into his living-room to find...nothing. The girl was gone. The only trace that another person had ever been in Ranma's small home at all was the small black laptop that sat in the middle of the floor.  
As if on cue with Ranma's thoughts, the laptop began to hum to life. After a few seconds, a small speaker spouted out a deep voice, incongruous with the tiny machine that was generating it.  
"Open up the laptop, because we do not have much time."  
Cautiously, Ranma flipped the catches on either side of the small computer and unfolded it. On the monitor was a picture of a large man of muscular build wearing a perplexingly crystalline pair of sunglasses that seemed to be reflecting Ranma's living-room through the very computer and smiling as if his life had just suddenly become to make sense.  
Noticing the microphone pickup on the laptop's monitor, Ranma began to speak.  
"Who are you?"  
The man's smile grew. "That's not important right now, but what I need to tell you is very important. You've been living a lie.  
-Have they found me?- There was no way. Ranma's trail was nonexistant. There was no way that the Tendoes and the old man could have...  
"I want you to walk out of you front door as quickly as you can. Don't worry about the computer, but you're in danger. You have to leave now.  
Ranma stood and clasped his collar, looking around nervously, and made for the door.  
At the door, he came face to face with two of the thugs from before.  
"Sorry, sir. We seem to have the wrong place." The head thug from before, from behind sunglasses, smiled smugly. "We don't suppose you have a redheaded woman in there with you?"  
Ranma shook his head and exited his house, closing his front door behind him making for the exit. As he came down the first flight of stairs, he heard the sound of wood splintering as if a door was being busted in. He broke into a run and arrived at the front exit to the small building as the woman from before came up on a motorcycle that looked so new that it must have been just out of the paintshop.  
"Get on." She didn't even give him a second glance. "We have to get you before they do."  
Ranma was about to speak when an explosion seemed to rock the very pavement. A looming fireball burst from Ranma's outside window, three floors up, and yielded a single body, discarding it on the pavement behind the motorcycle.  
"Get on now!" Trinity grabbed Ranma's arm and gunned the engine of the bike even as the charred mass of flesh that lay behind them began to stir and draw a gun. Weighing the alternative, Ranma hopped onto the back of the bike even as Trinity brought it into gear, speeding away from the flaming thug as quickly as possible.  
  
***  
  
It was two hours towards Hokkaido and quite a few toll roads before Trinity could find the courage to speak.  
"How do you move that quickly?"  
"I've been practicing for a very long time." She could almost feel the kid smirking behind her.  
"I've mastered every art that's known," Trinity took her own turn to smile, but switched back to being serious soon after. "I could never beat an agent, though, and you just beat three of them while barely breaking a sweat."  
"Agent?" Ranma asked confusedly. "You mean those thugs? I've fought better."  
"You'll see." Trinity wondered how this child could have faces one who was better than an agent. Hadn't she been told that it wasn't possible?  
There was no more conversation during the ride until they came up to a run-down office building and Trinity opened the front door for Ranma.  
"Morpheus needs to speak to you. He'll tell you what's going on if you really wish to know."  
Ranma paused before walking through the door.  
"And what do I call you?"  
Trinity smiled for the first time since earlier that day when Ranma had saved her from the agents. "I'm Trinity."  
  
***  
  
As Ranma entered the building, a door down the hall creaked open, shedding light on the floorspace between Ranma and the room that the door had concealed. Not wasting any time, Ranma hurried over to the Room and entered to find the same man who he had seen on his laptop reclining in a comfortable-looking red leather chair.  
"Welcome, Ranma." His Japanese was perfect, like the dialect that the Agents had spoken, though there was also a warmth to his voice. "Take a seat, because I have something important to tell you,"  
Ranma remained standing. He wasn't ready to trust this man.  
"Very well," the man sighed. "We shall start with the basics. I am Morpheus, and I'm here to give you the chance to see what the world is really like." He tossed a small silver box into Ranma's lap and made for a door in the side of the room. "Take the red one if you want to see what I mean. I know you know what I'm talking about. If you take the blue one, you'll forget everything and this will end. Make a choice and come into the next room, where I will be waiting, if you take the red one."  
Ranma sat down in the red chair after Morpheus made his exit and opened the box. In it were two pills, one red and one blue. Did Morpheus know who Ranma really was?  
He couldn't. He must have been baiting him, thinking that Ranma did not have the courage.  
That was it. Ranma Saotome never backed down from a challenge! He quickly downed the red pill and entered the next room, stepping into a scene out of some cheesy sci-fi movie.   
Morpheus stood in front of Ranma, smiling, flanked by Trinity, a woman with short blonde hair, a man who looked Mexican, though Ranma was not sure, and a short, bald Italian man who was grinning triumphantly.  
"I need you to sit here," Morpheus motioned to a chair that was currently the only normal-looking thing in the room. "The pill contained a trace program that allows us to determine your exact coordinates.  
Confused, Ranma sat down as the women placed electrodes on his arms which were connected to some odd gadgets and, interestingly enough, an old rotary telephone.  
"Welcome to the club, kid. What do we call you?" The Italian man extended a hand of friendship.  
"Rank-err...Ranma." Ranma took the hand, and then felt a sudden wrenching.   
Suddenly, it was as if Ranma was seeing double. The world took on a distinctly flat look and tore itself in two. Everything seemed to grow silent as Ranma's strange new 'friends' hustled to see what was wrong.   
"What did you do to me!?" Ranma fell from his chair in a spasm and lurched towards Morpheus.  
"Morpheus, we're getting two trace signals!" Trinity frantically checked readouts so that she could define the problem.  
Ranma noticed an uncharacteristic look on the large man's face. Fear.  
"Which one is nearest? Get him! We can't afford to lose him!" Morpheus rushed behind the consoles to help and then Ranma's world inverted.  
  
***  
  
Cherry blossoms lined Ranma's vision as he awoke from a terrible dream into a nightmare. There was something down his throat!! There was something inside of his arms! Where was he? Unhesitating, he quickly executed a Moko Takabisha.  
Nothing happened, Absolutely nothing.  
Ranma finally lashed out with all his strength, feeling feeble, and felt his hands pierce some sort of membrane and cold so biting that it hurt touch his skin. He glanced around and found that, though his vision was too blurry to make out any details his depth perception still functioned, and he was very, very high up.  
As Ranma attempted to focus something black grabbed him with iron claws and gave him pain, spinning something in the back of his neck, and left. Ranma perversely enjoyed the solace until the small explosions seemed to rack his body   
and, once again, stopped.  
Ranma was given no rest this time as the tank that he found himself him emptied itself, dumping itself, warm goo and Ranma in all, into the tube that seemed to be holding it up.  
  
***  
  
Trinity wrapped the cloth tightly about herself, watching as Tank and Dozer operated the winch that was pulling the boy's inert form up into the Nebudchanezzar. He looked so different, without that hair. Trinity had been like that once herself. It was so long ago when Morpheus had come to her, a young hacker showing what she could do, and shown her what the world could be like. He had shown her the lie that she was perceiving and then he had shocked her awake by showing her the truth.  
She watched silently as Tank wrapped a blanket that was similar to her own around Ranma and lifted him up as if he were a small child. Had Trinity ever been that young? Nineteen years old, Morpheus had said. Nineteen and he had that kind of power...  
Trinity shivered to herself as the unconscious boy was taken by Tank into the medical room, where he would undergo the seemingly miraculous treatments that would help his body grow.  
  
***  
  
Ranma woke up and rubbed her head, looking at what was left of the gadgets that had littered the room where she had sat, awaiting the revelation that did not come.  
"So much for that." Ranma got up and exited the slightly charred room, kicking the remains of the complicated machines aside.  
Having an odd feeling as she passed the table where she had left the box with the blue pill, Ranma broke into a run and quickly made her way out onto the street.  
"Oh shit." Ranma looked around at the relatively rural area that was the trademark of Hokkaido. "How am I going to get back home?"  
Ranma smiled as she looked at the southward-facing fence post that lined her building. "Well...old ways are the best ways." She hopped up with a flourish and began the long run home to Tokyo.  
To Ranma's surprise, she almost immediately fell off of the top of the fence, landing hard on the ground and bruising herself. She quickly tried again, but got the same results. With a grumble Ranma began a walk to Tokyo, hoping that she might see a friendly face along the way.  
  
***  
  
Bright. It was so bright! It felt as if the sun had suddenly increased in its intensity a thousand times over. It burned! It felt as if a thousand needles were making their ways into Ranma's brain! Something was missing. Ranma heard a presence with the only part of him that seemed to be working, his ears. Something gingerly touched his hand but he remained still, the pain steeling his muscles and jellifying his nerves.  
"What happened up there, Tank?" It was Trinity. The strain in her voice hinted at betrayal as Ranma heard heavy footsteps entering the room.  
"I don't know, Trin. I'm sorry! I was trying to access his memory patterns and bam! I got disconnected!"  
"Is that even possible?" The touch that was on Ranma's hand left momentarily, and then returned.  
"I can't say. I've looked at the logs over and over again. It's as if he's an encrypted data file. No matter how I try, I can't get through."  
The hand left Ranma's yet again and light footsteps crossed the room. "How the hell..."  
"That's not all, Trin. Everything about this guy is just a little off. He has the best synaptic reflexes I've ver seen. They seem to be literally perfect, but his cerebellum and thallamus are both underdeveloped. That's not logically possible, Trin. You know what it would take to work one without working the other as well as I do."  
"Maybe he's just what Morpheus says he is, Tank. Maybe you should believe him for once!"  
"Fuck that, Trin! Fuck that! If he's not certain this kid won't be dangerous it could spell death for all of us! When he screwed up with Neo it cost me my brother. My Brother, Trinity. Do you know how that feels?"  
There was only silence following as Ranma fell back into sleep.  
  
***  
  
Something woke Ranma up yet again. Someone was here.  
"Who's there?" Ranma hoped dearly for an answer and shut his eyes when none came, isolating himself from half of that painful light. The presence left, only to be replaced by another after what seemed like hours.  
"How do you feel?" It was Morpheus, but he sounded so much less confident. He sounded like he had been through a war.  
"I feel like I've died and gone to Hell." Ranma took this chance to be blunt. "What did you do to me? Did you poison me?"  
Morpheus laughed, a sound which Ranma could imagine less stalwart men fearing. "Far from it. I've brought you life."  
Ranma welcomed the blackness that came as he felt sedative coursing throughout his body, another pinprick among thousands.  
After what seemed like sheer seconds Ranma opened his eyes once more to Morpheus's kind eyes and hear his deep, soothing voice. "Are you ready?"   
Ranma blinked the rest of the sleep out of his eyes and sat up, feeling weak.  
"Ready for what?"  
"To see the real world."  
  
***  
  
Ranma lurched out of the constraints of the chair and found that there were hands holding him down as the impossibly long needle was removed from his spine. He made for the door that led out of the control room and ended up falling to the floor, making every attempt to catch his breath.  
"He's gonna pop," Someone in the deep background said. He wouldn't though. Ranma wouldn't give them that pleasure. Not them. They wouldn't see his weakness!  
He swallowed and got up.  
"Why did you bring me here, assuming you've been truthful."  
"Come with me and I'll speak of it to you, alone." Morpheus gently grabbed Ranma's arm and hefted him up as if he were a child, leading him to his small room.  
"I have to apologize to you, Ranma. I usually wouldn't pull someone this late in his lifespan, but I believe that I was justified in taking you." Ranma sat and listened, knowing that Morpheus would be speaking for a while. "You see, there is legend that when the Matrix was built, there was a person born inside who could actually edit it freely. The oracle foretold that the one would be reborn. many of us have been searching for that one in recent years because we believe that the time of the one's return is nigh. I believe that search is over, Ranma."  
Ranma looked morpheus directly in the eyes. "What if you're wrong?"  
For the first time since he had met Morpheus, which, despite that it was only a few hours ago, seemed like years already, the large man flinched. Without another word Morpheus got up and left the small room, leaving Ranma to his thoughts.  
  
***  
  
Hours later, Ranma was greeted by one of the two men on the ship who he had not been introduced to. "Hey kid. I'm tank. I'll be your op today. Didja sleep okay?" When given an affirmative nod from Ranma, the man paused for a moment, and then nodded to himself. "Well then, let's get going.  
"For what?" Ranma was curious. There didn't seem to be much on this ship to do, after all.  
"Combat training." The man smiled for the first time Ranma had seen since meeting him.  
"I don't need combat training," Ranma was momentarily indignant. "I'm already the best."  
"Really?" Morpheus's voice telegraphed his presence behind Ranma as they walked down the cramped hallways towards the broadcast core. "We'll see about that."  
  
***  
Ranma ran down the streets at top speed, hoping to get home and see if her apartment had survived the explosion. It was getting cold.  
"Damn. What I'd give for a hot shower ... " She shivered to herself and kept running as the weather grew uncharacteristically colder and colder, seeing as it was midsummer.  
After what seemed like ages of unchanging highway through mountainous terrain, Ranma began to recognize the spots of city that she passed even as they blurred by. Eventually, as twilight began to hit, Ranma stopped in front of a small hotel. Fingering what little money she had in her pocket, she decided to stay.  
Inside the lobby of the hotel was a mass of children, all perfectly silent, who seemed to be there of their own volition. A woman approached Ranma as she gingerly closed the door and handed her a ticket.  
"The Oracle will see you in a while, child. Just make yourself comfortable. We've been expecting you for a long time.  
  
Fin. Chapter 1.  
  
Author's Note: This work, untitled as of yet, is an adaptation from the Matrix, a film by the Wachowski brothers, and Ranma 1/2, an Anime by Takahashi Rumiko. All rights are held respectively by those three people. The Author made absolutely no money from this fic. He's not good enough at it to make a profit. 


	2. Mirror Account: Chapter 2

Mirror Account: Chapter 2: Two heads are better.  
  
Ranma stood across from Morpheus in the dojo, relaxing his posture as the older man unfolded into a drunken-fist stance.  
  
This was going to be fun.  
  
Morpheus put out his forehand and waved Ranma forward, but the young man simply shook his head. This seemed to surprise Morpheus, but he quickly compensated, taking an offensive stance and lashing out at Ranma with a double punch that would have knocked the wind out of him, had it hit.  
  
Ranma was not where Morpheus would be, but his hands were as he caught Morpheus' wrists and tossed the larger man into the wall behind him.  
  
Morpheus got up and brushed the dust from his Gi.  
  
Ranma waited.  
  
***  
  
Trinity watched the monitor for any hint of the girl, but she did not show up. As Morpheus moved faster and faster, so did Ranma. Finally, the refresh rate of the monitor was not enough, and the boy became a blur. Morpheus flew against the opposite wall of the dojo for what seemed like the hundredth time during the match. A hand caught Trinity's shoulder.  
  
"Look at this, Trin." It was Tank. He quickly led Trinity over to the screens that displayed the neurokinetics of the two combatants. The screen labeled "Unit 2" almost seemed to be a solid block of light blue, while the other was going in a steady sine wave.  
  
"This is insane, Trin. Nobody has neurokinetics like that. He'd be breaking the damn sound barrier in there if there was one!"  
  
***  
  
Ranma pummeled Morpheus again as he was attacked yet again.  
  
"Give it up, Morpheus. I'm not even catching my second wind!" he folded his hands behind his head and jumped lightly onto Morpheus' shoulders and giving the man a gentle kick into the wall behind him. "You can't even hit me!"  
  
Morpheus said nothing, but instead came at him again, with similar results.  
  
Finally, Ranma gave it up and began to lead Morpheus into a mild spiral, allowing the man a hit or two to make him feel better until he let loose with a Hiryu Shouten Ha.  
  
The result, as expected, was Morpheus being blown through the roof.  
  
***  
  
Ranma looked surreptitiously around the lobby at the others who were sitting there waiting. They were all so quiet! Bored, Ranma walked over to a young girl in Buddhist-style robes who was playing with a pair of metallic balls.  
  
As Ranma approached the balls began to float. The girl was not moving a muscle, Ranma was positive, but the Balls were maintaining positions in mid air just as if they were suspended on strings. As Ranma allowed her arms to drop to her sides the girl seemed to notice her for the first time and smiled at her as the balls dropped lifelessly to the floor.  
  
"How did you do that?" Ranma's eyes remained locked on the balls, expectantly waiting for them to come back to life.  
  
"Do what?" The girl spoke perfect Japanese. "Nothing happened at all!" Her eyes glittered with held-in mirth as the smiled once again and trotted off into another room, leaving the mysterious balls to wait for the next child who wished to play with them.  
  
***  
  
"He beat him." Cypher twitched nervously as he looked at the screen which displayed Morpheus' inert bulk, spread out on the matt of the dojo. He turned to question Trinity. "Has that ever happened before?"  
  
Trinity was not there, but was instead already at Ranma's side, helping him to his feat. Scarce minutes later, Morpheus was on his feet and smiling proudly. "I knew you could do it, Ranma. I knew you were the one!"  
  
Ranma turned towards the exit to the uncomfortably snug room. "You're just one in a long line. This doesn't mean anything."  
  
Even as the boy's back turned, Cypher new that this was going to be another dangerous situation. Morpheus was getting old. It had been ten years since the screw-up with Neo and the man was still trying. As Tank, and finally Trinity left Cypher to his duties of watching for serious anomalies in the Matrix. Now was his chance.  
  
***  
  
"So. You feel that you have another opportunity to present to us." The Agent was somehow more imposing as the soft-spoken Japanese man who sat across the table from Cypher, sipping tea.  
  
"Yeah. You know the deal, though." Cypher fiddled with the chopsticks nervously. He had never liked sushi.  
  
"Yes. Of course." The Agent scarcely moved. "We feel that there is something that we must add. For our protection in this...deal, let us say."  
  
Cypher shivered immediately gave a quick glance behind himself for danger. It was as if the room temperature had just dropped ten degrees.  
  
"If we find the access codes on our own, all deals are off." The Agent smiled, making Cypher even more nervous. "You will be hunted like any other human."  
  
It took a good deal of self control not to stand up and break into a run. After all, Cypher had been hunted by these things for almost three decades. "Fine. No squidies, though."  
  
The Agent promptly stood up and handed Cypher a rotary phone.  
  
"Deal."  
  
***  
  
Ranma stared at her hands as she followed the woman through the `employees only' door that led into the bowels of the hotel and finally came to a small family shrine, where a statue of Amida Buddha sat.  
  
"She will be here shortly"  
  
Before Ranma could turn to thank the woman she was gone, off to tend to another of those who were still waiting in the lobby. Turning back to the Shrine in confusion, Ranma found an old woman sitting there quietly, as if she was waiting for something.  
  
"Excuse me..."  
  
"Yes." The woman answered affirmatively before Ranma could finish her query.  
  
"Why am I-"  
  
"Wait." The woman turned to look at Ranma. "Come closer so that these old eyes can get a good look at you."  
  
Ranma got a good look at the old woman's face even as the latter seemed to be analyzing Ranma. This woman was old. She may have even been older than Cologne!  
  
"I guess you're about halfway there, child. You're just waiting for your prince to come." The woman chuckled to herself, infuriating Ranma.  
  
"I'm a guy, you-"  
  
"So you are?" The woman's voice was suddenly harsh, much as Colognes had always been. It carried pain of a war. "Do all `guys' have breasts, child? Do all guys have capacity to bare children? You're delusional. Maybe you won't be able to handle it."  
  
"You don't understand, old woman. I'm cursed-"Ranma was once again cut off by the old woman.  
  
"You will be silent, now! When was the last time you touched an ounce of hot water. Was it when you awoke in your bathtub? How many days ago was that, Ranma Saotome?"  
  
Ranma shrugged, and was about to speak when the woman continued.  
  
"You will not speak! I shouldn't have to tell you so many times." Her voice softened suddenly. "Children these days...you think you own the world!" She chuckled to herself yet again.  
  
As if that chuckle had signified the end of a ceremony the woman arose and took Ranma's right hand in her own soft, wrinkled palms.  
  
"Come with me, young one. I'm sure you're confused."  
  
Ranma allowed herself to be led into a busy kitchen, where food was being prepared on all of the stoves except for one, which housed a kettle. The woman quickly took the kettle in one hand and handed it to Ranma.  
  
"Do your thing, child."  
  
Ranma dumped the kettle over her head and turned to the woman. "There! You see! I'm not a gi-" The old woman was holding up a mirror. In the mirror was a very tired looking young redhead.  
  
"Now you see, child. That room and that tearing were not dreams. You're free to stay here and wait for your brother. We've had a room prepared for you for a few years now. It's all set up even as we speak. Here's your key. It's even got a view of the outside dojo, just the way you like it. A perfect option to go collect your thoughts, wouldn't you say?" The old woman, no, the Oracle led Ranma out as she handed her the small silver keychain which sported a single numeral with clarity.  
  
1/2  
  
***  
  
Ranma stood, staring at the iron claw that had brought him, unclothed and immobile, so like a newborn child, into this world with reproach. It looked like some mechanical, mutated perversion of a human hand. It was hard to wonder whether or not that painful, scalding water down below that pod from whence he came, down below that small thing that Morpheus claimed made Ranma a battery, may have been a better fate than this darkened sky and twisted metal. He got up, gradually, as his muscles still ached, and pressed a hand, skin still as pink as the day he was born, against one of the joints of the claw.  
  
"Mechanical mother..." His voice sounded weak as the half-joking statement rolled off of his tongue. He ran his fingers up to the cable and investigated it gingerly. Flakes of red rust came off on Ranma's fingers, feeling so unnatural. If he wasn't so certain that he was not dreaming he would have been able to swear that this was a dream. It was not, of course. It could not be. The warmth was warmer, the ice colder. It was just all so unnatural, though!  
  
"Lookin' for something to grasp onto, eh kid?" It was the bald guy, Cypher, holding a metallic mug that exuded a smell that caused Ranma to want to gag from many feet away.  
  
"Yeah." He wished he could have his voice back more than ever now. What would have had happened if he'd taken the blue pill?  
  
"I know what you're thinkin' kid." Cypher sat down on the floor next to Ranma. "Just wait 'til a few decades are up. Maybe you'll be as crazy as Morpheus is."  
  
Ranma looked up at Cypher's round face. "When did he...take you?"  
  
Cypher shrugged. "I was sixteen or seventeen years old, and just like every other hotshot hacker kid out there, trying to prove my name. Morpheus used a pretty girl to get through to me and we had a bit of a contest. I made an ATM spit out cash and she cracked the IRS T-Base in the US. Guess who won?" He chuckled to himself and sipped some more of his noxious beverage.  
  
Ranma finally rubbed his eyes and stood up.  
  
"Where ya' going, kid?" Cypher turned around to give Ranma a sidelong glance. "Sleep. I have more operations programs to run tomorrow. Morpheus says he wants me to meet the oracle as soon as possible." Ranma turned towards the large hatch that led into the main body of the Nebudchanezzar just in time to miss a wide grin coming to Cypher's face.  
  
***  
  
Ranma stood atop the skyscraper next to morpheus, wearing a black T-shirt that flapped in the high winds in a way that made Ranma feel just a little off-center.  
  
"The trick in the Matrix is realizing which rules you can bend and which you need pay no mind to. Observe." Morpheus took a running start and leapt from the top of the building on which he and Ranma stood onto the next building. When Ranma only shrugged noncommittally Morpheus grinned triumphantly and called out to him. "Now you try!"  
  
Ranma leapt straight up and came down a few moments later mere steps away from Morpheus stood.  
  
"Are you done?"  
  
Morpheus only smiled as if he'd had some small victory and nodded to some unknown deity.  
  
Moments later Ranma was gasping for air as gentle hands removed the offending needle from his neck. As he sat up and surveyed the transmission room again he found seven six pairs of eyes looking directly into his own.  
  
"Amazing." The solitary word from Cypher broke the silence and the motion on Nebudchanezzar resumed as if nothing had happened. Confused, Ranma returned to his room to rest.  
  
***  
  
"It doesn't make any sense!" Ranma went through her katas with a fervor that she had not felt since leaving Nerima. "There was no Chisuiton this time. There was only the little red pill. It wasn't the Phoenix pill. Cologne said that there was only one of those." She quickly incapacitated another imaginary enemy  
  
Ranma's assigned room stood in disarray, all of the furniture shoved to one side so that she could practice her katas and maybe achieve some sort of balance in her current confusion.  
  
Desperate for some sort of answer, she launched into a Chestnut attack and nearly demolished a wall in her blind frustration, hesitating just in time to avoid damage that the small hotel would surely not appreciate.  
  
Finished with her kata and only more distressed through the effort that she had put out, Ranma retreated into the suite's bathroom, drawing a hot shower for herself.  
  
***  
  
Morpheus occupied a stool near Ranma as the boy rested, neither one of them making any sound at all until the silence was almost tangible.  
  
"I'm sorry." Morpheus' voice betrayed immense pain. "I believe that my time is almost up, and I believe that you know why."  
  
"Because I'm 'the one'?" Ranma snorted derisively. "I'm just a martial artist. I don't bother with any of this techno-crap. If you're going to feed me this bullshit, at least have the sense to talk about it like someone who's not just some fanatic, devoted to a dying religion."  
  
The silence came again, and for longer. It seemed to be a continuously widening gap between Ranma and Morpheus.  
  
"I..." Morpheus' forehead glistened with sweat. "I think you don't grasp the situation, Ranma."  
  
Ranma sighed and rolled onto his side, staring at Morpheus.  
  
"You're the first person I've ever seen who could make that jump on the first try. Out of all of the captains of the ships, out of all of the 'ones,' none has ever been able to make The Jump on the first try. Not ever, Ranma.  
  
Ranma shook his head in denial, refusing to debate with the older man any longer.  
  
Morpheus shrugged and held his hand up, standing and making a polite bow  
  
in Ranma's direction.  
  
"Tomorrow we dive into the Matrix, Ranma. Be ready."  
  
***  
  
Morpheus, Ranma, Trinity, Cypher, Tank, Switch, and Apoc all sat in a circle, awaiting the wrenching feeling that was to come. It was time to see the oracle. It was time for Ranma to find the truth for himself.  
  
After an eternity of waiting, the needle came in a moment of white-hot pain, and then.....Nothingness.  
  
***  
  
Ranma shrieked in agony as she clutched the shower curtain, grasping for balance in retaliation against the piercing pain that had suddenly come upon her. She strove to reach to the elegant medicine cabinet that sat mere inches from her desperate gasp and fell in an unrealistically fast, and yet blindingly, painfully slow plunge as her forehead made hard contact against the edge of the marble sink. As she blacked out she saw the woman who called herself the oracle, standing in the doorway of the bathroom in panic, ready to catch Ranma as she fell.  
  
***  
  
Ranma came to in a warehouse, surrounded by vaguely familiar figures and agitated voices.  
  
"What the hell happened? That felt like I had my skull ripped out and rearranged."  
  
"Quiet, Cypher. We've got a problem on our hands, a big problem."  
  
"It looks more like a girl to me," a soft feminine voice said with irony.  
  
Ranma felt that this would be a good time to sit up and look around and open her eyes all the way, and was immediately sorry that she had. She hadn't had this much of a headache since the hangover that had followed that 'Drunken Fist' fiasco.  
  
"Where the hell am I? Why am I with you guys again? Where's the oracle?" Ranma looked around at her new companions until her view centered on the large man known as Morpheus.  
  
"Who are you?" Morpheus' voice was silent.  
  
Trinity stepped out of the still-blurry darkness from behind Morpheus and smiled smugly.  
  
"I told you so, Morpheus! There were two signals! That's the girl who helped me!"  
  
Morpheus' gaze shot from Ranma to Trinity and then back to Ranma, piercing her soul like a barbed arrow  
  
"How is this possible? The Oracle never said anything about there being two of you!"  
  
As Ranma looked from Morpheus to Trinity confusedly a cel phone rang. A kid with a large black anvil case pulled a small cel phone out of his jacket and answered. "Mouse here"  
  
He nodded once and his face fell into a look of despair.  
  
"How many?" He waited another moment and then dropped the phone, shattering it on the ground, creating another deafening silence.  
  
"We're dead. There're ten of them. Ten Agents."  
  
***  
  
Yamada surveyed his partners, useless machines. All of them simultaneously cracked their various joints as if it mattered. There was no body there to tune up. There was not the joy of being a well-oiled machine. There were just his subroutines, and their victims.  
  
Even now, he could see the young boy, now a man of twenty-eight years. He was sitting there with two Gattling cannons, just as he had when trying to defend Neo. The foolish programmer had sacrificed his own life so that his compatriots could escape. Neo. What a pathetic waste of the humans' time. He never even made it to the Oracle.  
  
Yamada gave a glance to the rest of the agents and began to run towards the door of the warehouse. He increased his speed past human limits until his legs were nothing but a blur. Faster and faster he ran until the asphalt under his feet began to blacken under the friction that he was causing. One hundred yards. Twenty five yards.  
  
The groan of the steel as Yamada plowed through the door would have been considered raucous if he were a human. Instead, he found it pleasurable. It was the sound of the human's demise. It was the sounds of the codes that allowed him into the mainframe of Zion.  
  
It was the sound of Victory!  
  
Yamada zeroed in on the kid, Mouse, and made a beeline straight for him, ignoring all of the other pitiful humans. It was time to rectify a mistake.  
  
As he picked up speed yet again, something went wrong. The body of another agent hit him squarely in the midriff, knocking him back. The startled kid turned his two Gattling cannons on him and blasted. The momentary oblivion was unsettling, but the recovery was quick. Another hardwired human disappeared and Yamada was a dockworker. Yoji Takeshi, age 36, father of two. No more was he. Now he felt Yamada's joy and made a run for the warehouse even as he felt the re-entry of three other agents. Something was not right about this battle. The humans had a new weapon. Yamada checked his data as he accelerated once more towards the warehouse, this time aiming for a side door, and found that there was one human who was out of place in this mix. There was one human who was still hardwired into the system. It was the girl from the other day!  
  
Yamada's frown turned into a vicious snarl as he dove for the wall. Twenty feet of hard cement passed under him as his head collided with the fist of a young girl, not more than 19 years old. Then, his head collided with it again, and again, and again. Crimson filled Yamada's field of view as he found his target and attempted to move at her only to find a solid wall. He desperately searched for another hardwired human in the area and had no luck. They had lost this battle, and the higher order would not be happy.  
  
***  
  
Ranma gasped for air as she looked at the battered corpse of a normal Japanese man, skull pounded into some sort of concoction that resembled moldy oatmeal with tomato juice mixed in.  
  
She looked around at the people who had been here and woke up and found them staring directly back into her eyes, the young man with something like triumph.  
  
"I've never seen a single human take down an agent one-on-one," Morpheus walked towards Ranma with a brisk, triumphant spring in his step, "and yet, here I see a girl taking out not one, but ten agents!" Morpheus removed his sunglasses, revealing eyes darker than Ranma would have thought possible on a man, but bloodshot around the edges. "Surely, we have had a change in luck. Let us make our way to the Oracle."  
  
***  
  
Ranma tossed and turned, pain wracking his limbs as he gasped for air, the needle that he had thought he would be used to by now stinging all the way in, and then exploded into eddies of pain which wracked his entire body, not allowing him to settle even as he felt the confinement of the pain confining each and every muscle of his body. He felt the pain of a battle, the ice that was felt when he knew that one of his fists was snapping bone, and the glory of beating what everybody else thought the odds were, but he knew the truth. He would always win.  
  
Pain caused his body to spasm again, still leaving him in darkness, unseeing, but feeling something soft and cold pressing up against his forehead.  
  
"Are you okay?" A worried voice attempted to sound soothing, but just betrayed worry. The accent was unmistakably rural Japanese, but Ranma could not place the voice, only that it sounded familiar. He attempted to move and failed. He was still confined.  
  
Warmth began to spread through his legs, causing them to thrash violently with the sudden onrush of feeling. He heard a frightened shriek as he kicked out violently, involuntarily.  
  
The warmth spread up to his abdomen, causing him to want to wretch with the sickness that followed, but he could not. He simply sat there as blood seeped out the corners of his mouth.  
  
The warm feeling made it to his torso and caused him to violently shudder in pain again as his lungs burned in an unholy fire and he gasped for the air that he knew he would need, or he was going to die.  
  
I'm dead. Dead. Dead. DEAD. Ranma could only come to the conclusion that some unknown poison had infected his body as he systematically stretched his burning arms and the warmth moved throughout them as well. He tested his arms as if newly born and flexed each finger in turn, ignoring the fire that coursed through his veins.  
  
Then the fire maid it through his neck to his head, and pain overcame Ranma, and he screamed, and darkness came, but the pain did not end. He continued screaming and screaming, until finally he awoke.  
  
***  
  
Darkness invaded Ranma's vision as the pain receded, but he exuded satisfaction as he investigated that darkness and found that it was darkness with depth. He was not dead! He was somewhere! But where?  
  
He slowly turned around, grasping the covers that enveloped his body, feeling that they were something like cotton, and trying to make out any details. After he'd taken in all that he could of the room the lights came on, barely bright enough so that Ranma could make out a solitary, feminine figure, curled up in a chair opposite to the bed that Ranma had found himself in. Before Ranma was barely able to stand before the figure stood and made its way out of the room, allowing a small bit of light on it as the door opened and silently shut.  
  
He attempted to disentangle himself from the blankets as he felt movement on the bed and immediately felt stirring on the other half of the bed.  
  
"Why are you moving all around?" The voice from before sounded annoyed. The stirring continued. "What is it, 3 AM? Couldn't you have picked another time to have a nightmare love?"  
  
Ranma sat rigid as a board as a feminine curvature slowly made its way up his back, breasts sliding smoothly along either side of his spine and arms wrapping themselves gingerly around his necks.  
  
"I'm sorry, hun." The voice sounded hurt, now, quickly converting from annoyed to pouting. "Mmm...I love your back so much! It's just like a girl's!" A nervous giggle followed.  
  
Ranma'd had enough. He edged to the side of the bed and stood up, knocking the girl, whoever she was, to the ground.  
  
"Ouch!" The girl stood up, thankfully obscured in her nudity by the darkness, brushing her short, boyish hair out of her eyes. "You Baka! What's the big idea?" The voice was right, but the tone was wrong. Something was terribly wrong! Ranma rushed to the light switch and pushed it up the rest of the way, looking at the girl who stood with her arms around her chest, in front of him, indignantly staring at him.  
  
"No..." Ranma turned from her. "This can't be."  
  
*******  
  
Author's Note:  
  
This chapter was very long in the making. I NEED C & C. Ream it. Rip it up! Criticize! Flame! Just tell me what you think!  
  
No special thanx yet. Nobody's read it.  
  
-Inu 


	3. Mirror Account: Chapter 3, Reformatted

Mirror Account.

...

Chapter 3: Shit, meet Fan. 

"You saw it, didn't you, Tank?" Morpheus was rapt as he stood at the helm of the Nebudchanezzar, his jackboot clicking rhythmically on the metal flooring in an effort to appease his nervousness.

"I saw the numbers, Morpheus. It's impossible." Tank was still staring at the monitors, not even looking up at the older man to see the expression that he knew was there. It was another One. "You're acting like you just saw a burning bush, or a stone spouting water, Morpheus."

Tank could hear the smile in Morpheus' voice. "No, Tank. It was just a girl." He abruptly stopped his tenuous rhythm, spun on his heel and turned towards the monitors and Tank. "How are Trin and Cypher doing?"

"They're almost there, Morpheus. The Oracle should be waiting."

The older man smiled again. "Yes, indeed."

Morpheus seated himself comfortably in the pilot's seat of the Nebudchanezzar and turned the autopilot off as he gunned the engines and headed for the source of the small blip that they had not picked up, somewhere on the easternmost of the continents. 

***

Ranma stared at the blood that adorned her hands, not bothering to even touch the wet rag that Trinity had supplied her from seemingly nowhere as she sat in the back of the mysterious black Sedan and Cypher spoke to Trinity in hushed tones, assuming that she didn't hear him, acting as if she wasn't less than four feet away.

"Did you see that, Trin? Did you fucking see that?" She killed ten of them! She's incredible!"

"Calm down, Cy."

"But she killed them, Trin! Nobody's k-"

"Shut the hell up, Cy! She can hear you!"

Both woman and man turned to look back on Ranma as one as she stared at her hands, still covered in blood.

"Get your eyes back on the road." Ranma heard her voice cracking in grief, though she felt none. It was all an act in the end, wasn't it?

Cypher turned around but Trinity still kept her eyes on Ranma, staring daggers into her.

"They weren't human, you know."

Ranma looked up. "Like the guys that were chasing after you before, right?"

Trinity nodded.

"Well why is it so different." Ranma couldn't understand what wasn't human about those guys. They certainly looked it, and felt it as well. They had bones. She'd cracked every one of them.

Cypher snorted, not taking his eyes off the road.

"Take my word for it," Trinity's eyes bespoke sympathy. "You're about to find out more than you could ever want to know.

Unsatisfied, Ranma gave up the point for the moment, scrubbed the now-caked blood from her hands, and closed her eyes and took some much-needed rest as the car wound its way across Japan.

***

Ranma shifted uneasily, keeping his distance from Akane.

"How are you here?" He dared barely to even breathe as he forced the words out, wishing he had never turned the lights on, looking for his clothing, but not finding any. 

The short-haired girl only looked at him confusedly, tears welling up in her big, blank eyes as the steam that her breath caused when impacting with the cold air of the room played down between her breasts, exciting Ranma, much to his own aggravation and embarrassment.

"We've been like these forever, haven't we, Ranma?" She got up, giving Ranma a full view of her body for the first time in years.

"Sit the hell down, Akane!" Ranma allowed some of his fury at the girl to show. She sat down with a little whimper, obediently following Ranma's order to the very letter. "You can't just barge back into my life like this. Especially not now! How the hell did you find me, anyway? _I_ don't even know where I am!" He sat down on the bed, his back to Akane. She immediately put her arms around him as if by reflex and began kissing the back of his neck.

"Get the _Hell_ off of me!" Ranma stood up abruptly, knocking Akane off of the bed, and the girl suddenly froze, not moving even a millimeter.

"Why do you push this away," A deep, familiar, grandmotherly voice queried from somewhere. "This is what you want, is it not? You loved her once."

"Cologne?" Ranma knew her tired old voice anywhere.

"No" An old, motherly woman stepped out of the bathroom. "I picked your brain, and chose a voice that was appropriate. Like you, I'm out of place here. You can call me the Oracle, for the time being."

"You did what?"

"I read your mind." The woman allowed herself a smile and pulled a chair that Ranma had not noticed before up to the bed. "That's not important, though. You're here because you're special. You're here because we can help each other."

"In other words, you want something from me." Ranma gave the woman a level stare, but could not seem to meet her gaze. There was something in her eyes that bespoke years beyond anything that Ranma could imagine.

The woman smiled obligingly. "It seems that it's time for you to go, and time for you to return. We shall speak later.

Akane resumed her motion and bore down on him as if on cue, kissing him savagely with a strength which he was unable to combat, and blackness came shortly after, followed by Glaring light. He was awake, released from the nightmare.

***

Tank pulled wickedly long needle out of the back of a gasping Ranma's neck, staring at the screens and trying to find out what happened. Finally, after seeing perfectly normal readings across the board, he gave up and asked Ranma.

"What do you mean 'what happened'?" Ranma was sitting up now, testing his slightly atrophied arms.

"Well...you didn't come out on a hard-line. You aren't dead. In the past, those two have been mutually exclusive. How'd you get out?"

"I just fell asleep. I passed out, I think." Ranma looked at Tank pensively. "Someone called The Oracle was talking to me. She seemed to know what was going on."

Tank's ragged face suddenly split into a grin. "Ah! She would, wouldn't she? You'd better head back down there. Morpheus'll be getting there any minute." 

Ranma sighed and sat back down in the chair as Tank inserted the needle once more and the world pulled through that now-familiar inversion. When he 'awoke' in the bedroom, the Oracle was standing there, a curious half-smile on her face, but Akane was gone.

"Back so soon?" the woman said in a tone that told Ranma that she knew he'd be there. "That's good. Why don't you head down to the dojo for a while? This should be fun."

***

Ranma opened her eyes, feeling the car stop, and found herself outside the hotel that she had run to after meeting Trinity for the first time. "This is…" 

"We're here." Trinity interrupted her, concise. "This is the Oracle's place in Japan."

As Ranma stepped out of the car, the sun caught her eyes and the wind blew, tickling her skin. That reminded her of something. She was stuck this way.

"I want my body back." She sighed as Trinity looked at her inquisitively. "Let's go. I wanna get this over with."

***

Ranma's heart leapt as he saw the familiar fiery hair blowing in the wind so far below from the window of the dojo.

"Cold water!" His voice came unintentionally as a sort of harsh general's bark. The oracle stood near him, unsurprised, holding a vase full of cold water. Ranma greedily snatched it out of her hands and dumped it over his head.

***

Trinity led the young girl to the front door of a pristinely clean hotel office and knocked gingerly. A young woman opened the door and smiled softly. 

"The Oracle is still with you. She'll be with you in a minute." The amusement in her voice was plain. 

"Huh?" The confusion on Ranma's face at the seemingly paradoxical speech of the woman was nothing short of comical.

"Articulate girl, aren't you? Wait a minute, ok-" A sudden earthquake rocked the hotel. "Never mind!" The woman laughed merrily. "She's done early." She beamed at Ranma and took her hand. "Come with me. There's somebody you should meet."

***

Ranma stood, soaked and male, and laughed more joyously than he had in as long as he could remember. He was still male! This had to be a dream! Leaving the Matrix must have cured his curse for good!

But who was the girl?

"She's here." The Oracle stood up and approached the door to the dojo as if in response to Ranma's own thoughts, which he no longer doubted was possible.

The Oracle slid the door aside to reveal a female version of Ranma, poised with her hand ready to knock on the door, a bemused look on her face. The look quickly dissolved into a piercing gaze of hatred as she made eye contact with Ranma.

"You!" The girl's voice was a snarl and her eyes bloodshot. "Give me my body back, you bastard!" She quickly took an offensive stance as her battle aura flared.

Ranma quickly turned to the Oracle to ask her to explain this, but found nothing.

He was going to have to fight for his life.

"I don't know who you are, or why you look like that." Ranma took a more defensive stance of his own, knowing that it would not matter in the least if this girl's aura was what it looked like. "But you'd better be able to back that up. I just got rid of that damned curse, and I'm not about to let you ruin this."

***

Trinity stood, watching the perimeter of the hotel, holding her cell phone at ready and waiting for the call that she knew would come, telling her to prepare the female Ranma for freedom, when Morpheus came up behind her and took her shoulder in his large, calloused hand.

"Where is she?"

It took Trinity a couple seconds to regain from the shock of being snuck up on as she pointed towards the hotel.

"Sorry for the scare. We found her, but something's odd.  The male's neurokinetics just shot up astronomically. Have you seen any agents or anything?"

Trinity shook her head, about to say that everything was quiet when the windows of one of the higher floors blew out, yielding two bodies, both hurtling towards the ground in slow motion, throwing punches at each other at blinding speeds, one in an ill-fitting dark suit, a female sporting a red pigtail, the girl, the other in Chinese clothing. It was Ranma, both Ranmas.

***

Onna-Ranma threw one, ten, a hundred punches at her seeming male counterpart as he blocked every one with an opposite fist. She kicked, and met the tip of his opposite foot. They fought seamlessly, neither one making a single strike, but both battering their hands and feet with parried and intercepted strikes. After what seemed like hours, the two of them hit the ground. Ranma looked around quickly to find a playing field where she could have the advantage, and spotted a swimming pool. She began a loping run for the pool and looked back to lead the male Ranma on, but he was on his way too, matching her step for step, and looking as confused as she felt.

"HALT!" The voice was deafening, and jarred both Ranmas out of their battle.

The old woman who they had both come to recognize as the Oracle stood next to the pool, staring at both of the drenched martial artists, and shook her head.

"I would let you two go on if I did not know what was going to happen. Now is not the time for this." She bent over the pool and took a female Ranma's hand, hauling her out of the pool with uncanny ease, and followed suit with the male Ranma.

"Ranko. Child..." The Oracle shook her head. "There is no Kaisui-Fuu, this time. There is no pill, no technique, and no pressure point. You are female. Face it."

The girl made a motion to leap at the male Ranma again. "This is all his fault!" Fortunately, an iron grip from the Oracle kept her from even moving.

"Go see Morpheus." The Oracle's voice, completely calm, heralded dire consequences if Onna-Ranma (_No. Ranko, _she told herself_)_ did not do what she said. Thinking better of starting a fight with this woman, Ranko quickly made towards the figure of Morpheus with her usual loping run. Male Ranma made a move to follow but the Oracle stopped him.

"You don't hurt her, boy. Do you hear me? She is you, in every possible sense of the word. Put yourself in her shoes. She's got more of a hell than you or I can imagine sitting before her. You hurt her and you won't live long enough to regret it. Now go help her out." The Oracle smiled at Ranma as if he was a toddler who had just gotten sand in his eyes and patted him on the back. "You don't have much of an easy time coming yourself. Come back and see me together when she's situated."

Ranma nodded, only understanding what the Oracle was saying halfway, and ran after the red-headed girl, yelling out for Morpheus to get the rig set up to free Ranko.

***

Ranko, as she would have to call herself until she found a way out of this, watched the small bathroom mirror next to the ridiculous chair that Morpheus had her sitting in. Slowly, deliberately, her reflection winked and blew a kiss at her. She heard a chuckle somewhere behind one of the piles of equipment and the world inverted, allowing blackness to rain and pink goo to cover Ranko, head to toe.

_Pink goo?_

She looked around, having trouble focusing, and then felt something wholly unnatural in her mouth, pumping something into her stomach. She flailed madly, trying to yell, trying to fight it, and them something _pulled._

Suddenly, she felt the pinpricks of a limb waking up and open air greeted her with a fire-water hello, burning her inside and out with a corrosive pain that almost made her lose consciousness. Something grabbed her neck, strangling her, and them she felt arms around her, holding her. A towel or blanket wrapped itself around her and she still felt the arms, strong and supporting, holding her. Finally, she felt the warmth of a bed under her, and allowed her mind to drift off to sleep. She couldn't handle this. What was going on?

***

Mouse kept his arms wrapped around the child even as he brought her to the bed and lay her down. This was the One? She was so frail! He watched all through the night, hours on end as she fitfully slept and sometimes even cried out.

"What are you dreaming of, eh?" He allowed himself one of his rare smiles.

Attuned ears picked his voice up as, almost simultaneously, Ranko woke up and Trinity walked into the room.

"It's a trip, eh?" Trinity looked at Ranko openly for the first time she could remember. "The guys never get how it feels." Ranko was sure that if she could see the woman clearly, she would have seen her wink.

A hand patted her arm, and then another.

"Sleep well. Mouse and I will be within hearing range if you need anything."

*********

Author's Note:

That was a short chapter, but I hope it will get longer.

C&C are wonderfulllll!

-Inu


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